Bricks

We were at my brother's house in Belton before they moved and I saw a stack of bricks in his backyard.  I knew he wouldn't be taking them with him and we really needed to replace some rusted edging in our yard.  I asked if we could have them and he said we could.  So, we loaded them up and brought them home.  Steve said he'd pay the boys $.05 for each brick they moved.  They moved all 364 bricks out of his truck and into the backyard.  After several weekends of Steve's hard work, our yard looks awesome!  Thanks Greg and Diane!!  You saved us a ton of money!

We even had enough leftover to make a small firepit!  It's not completed, yet (we need to mortar it), but we're excited to have one for the fall!

We used all the large rocks that had been lining our trails to line the entrance to the trails from our main yard.

Oklahoma

"Meet the Sooners" Day

The first morning we were in Oklahoma, OU had a "Meet the Sooners" Football Team Day.  Since Daddy has brainwashed Brock into being an OU fan, they went out to meet them. 

Brock said he really liked the assistant coaches.  When I asked him why, he said because they talked to him about Star Wars.  (He was wearing a Star Wars shirt.)

Brock and Papa at Owen Field.

Brock enjoying being on the actual football field where the Sooners play.

Brock and Daddy at Owen Field.

Steve and his dad, Gary.

Brock wanted to take some pictures, so he scripted a photo shoot.  Papa throws the ball...

...Daddy catches the ball...

...Brock dives to catch a ball.

Andy Alligators

There is a family fun center that the boys loved.  They had miniature golf, go carts, bumper boats, bumper cars, rock wall climbing, arcades, etc.  Here is Brock tee-ing off.

Ryan putting it in.

Cousin Logan hitting from the rough.

 Gramma with her three grandsons after a rousing game of mini-golf.

Brock, Logan and Ryan after the game.

 Brock on the go carts.  He loved these things and rode them over and over and over.  I think one reason was that, for the first time, he was tall enough to drive all by himself!

 Brock and Ryan on the climbing wall.  The lady running it said she had never seen a 4-year old go as high as Ryan did!

Oklahoma City Science Museum

This place was awesome!!!  If you ever go to OK City, you HAVE to go here.  We spent almost the entire day here and could've stayed longer.  It was the neatest place we've ever taken the boys...and they loved it as much as Steve and I.

Astronaunt Brock O'Neal

Astronaut Ryan O'Neal

This was the coolest treehouse ever.  It had two parts to it.  On the right side was a rope and pulley with a bucket attached that someone on the bottom could fill with foam balls, then the people at the top could pull it up, there was a slide from the top, brainteasers.  There was also a pulley from the right side to the left side.  It was really cool and the boys loved playing in it.

Brock riding a Segway

Steve riding a Segway.

Ryan on a Segway...obviously enjoying himself!

 There was also a place where kids could go do different hands-on cerebral activities.  One side was for kids up to 7 years old, the other was for 7+.  The younger side had things like a water table where you could put different boards and make dams or cause the water to go a different route by moving the boards around.  The older side had a lot of brain teasers.  We all enjoyed trying to solve the brain teaser puzzles.

 Ryan enjoyed the "fire station" with a fireman's pole that he could slide down.  He also showed me that he could shimmy all the way up the pole...pretty strong for a 4-year old!

Our First "Almost" Emergency Room Visit

On July 31st, our family had our first minor emergency.  Ryan was racing Brock in the backyard to a pile of bricks and fell onto the edge of one of the bricks, busting right below his knee wide open.  Luckily our pediatrician is open on Saturday mornings.  I took him in and because it was a jagged cut, they couldn't stitch it up, but instead put strips of tape on it (like butterfly stitches).

Six days later, we took the tape off and this is what was left.  It doesn't look near as bad as it did when it first happened, which is good, I guess!  The doctor said that he'll have a scar...but what boy doesn't have a scar somewhere?!?!  That's part of being a boy, right?

July 2010

After an afternoon of Lego building, the O'Neal men showed off what their wonderful imaginations created.

We went to a park one day and I got a couple good pictures of the boys.

We actually got a pretty good rain one day.  Brock and Ryan had been waiting so long to play in the rain and finally were able to don their raincoats and go play Star Wars in the rain!

Our Vacation Bible Study was titled "Adventure on the High Seas" where they learned about Paul.  We had great props that the boys got to play on.

 The College Station Library held a reptiles day.  Brock and Ryan held a python...

 ...and took a ride on a huge turtle.

(The turtle-riding was right after the boys got their hair cut.  Ryan asked Mr. Wes to give him a mohawk.  I wasn't quite going for that hair cut, so Mr. Wes styled it like a mohawk and that was good enough for Ryan...and Mommy!!!)

 One of the local swimming pools has a diving board.  We had never been swimming at this pool before, but were invited to a birthday party there.  Brock and Ryan both absolutely loved jumping off the diving board.  A friend got this picture of Brock.

July 4th, 2010

We had a great July 4th weekend. We went to my brother & sister-in-law's (Greg & Diane's) house in Belton and to Ft. Hood for the 4th. My other brother, Paul, and his family were in Waco for a basketball camp their son was in, so we got to see them, too. We went to watch Garrett at the camp... ...and hung out at Greg and Diane's house on the 3rd. They live out of the city limits, so we shot off some fireworks on the 3rd. Our lovely host and hostess, Greg and Diane..... Brock took this picture while we were shooting fireworks at Greg and Diane's. He's getting to be a pretty good photographer! Ft. Hood had great 4th of July festivities. They had a fair with rides and games to play, an Apache helicopter, a tank and lots of other things. We got a great parking spot (thanks to Greg!) and set up "camp." Here is Diane and Jody (Paul's wife). Diane, Jody and Brock Carmen, Diane and Jody They had a climbing wall that Ryan really wanted to try. So, we stood in line for quite a while and he got suited up...
...and started climbing. I think he could've gone a lot higher (maybe not all the way up), but he had fun and was very excited!
Ready for the fireworks to start! Steve, Jake (Paul & Jody's son), Paul and Ryan Joe (Greg's son), Brock and Nickie (Greg's daughter) Mommy and Ryan Ryan, Uncle Greg, Jake and Aunt Diane Brock and his buddy, Joe. The "kids." Carmen & Steve Our FamilyThe Crew: Greg, Steve, Jake, Carmen, Ryan, Brock, Joe, Paul

Jody, Diane, Jaqlyn, Nickie